Pitt researchers received a grant for a research project intended to revolutionize wheelchair mobility and improve quality of life for individuals with disabilities.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health recently awarded researchers in the Human Engineering Research Laboratory, an interdisciplinary collaboration between Pitt and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, up to $41.5 million. The funding will support the development of the Robotic Assisted Mobility and Manipulation Platform, an integrative system that uses AI and robotic technology to enhance wheelchair mobility.
According to Rory Cooper, director of HERL and professor of rehabilitation engineering, RAMMP is the first fully integrated mobility and manipulation platform that combines advancements in robotic technology and AI capabilities to improve the independence of individuals with disabilities and elderly adults.
“We’re planning to provide unprecedented mobility, at least for individuals with limited upper and lower extremity function,” Cooper said. “We want to make [the existing technology] lighter, more responsive, smarter and also more transportable.”
Jorge Candiotti, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation and biomedical engineer at HERL, highlighted that RAMMP would allow for technology to be developed using AI capabilities.
“We will create a virtual platform with RAMMP, where we can develop the technology virtually with all of its applications and deploy that in a physical platform,” Candiotti said. “The overarching goal of RAMMP is to create a consumer product for individuals with disabilities.”
Cooper said simple tasks like meal preparation may be difficult for wheelchair users due to navigation difficulties with different kitchen layouts. RAMMP uses physical AI, which uses AI to simulate environments virtually and translate that information into the real world, to provide wheelchair users with more freedom of mobility in their homes, according to Cooper.
“In AI, you could simulate all different types of environments and tasks, and then take those path-planning algorithms from the AI and translate them in the real world,” Cooper said. “AI has the advantage of being able to generalize by simulating different environmental layouts.”
Existing wheelchair technology is not designed for navigating challenging or inaccessible environments, according to Candiotti.
“There’s no universal design [for wheelchair technology], so the interfaces that are currently used for this technology are very demanding,” Candiotti said. “We want to alleviate the demand on the [current technology] and create a more intuitive and user-friendly interface.”
Kaden Herchenroether, a senior sociology major and wheelchair user, said the benefit of improving wheelchair mobility is its effect on quality of life for people with disabilities.
“If you have a fully-functioning brain, then you want to experience independence and not be waited on by someone all the time,” Herchenroether said. “I think that’s everyone’s dream to have function on their own.”
Herchenroether stressed the potential of this assistive technology research to make independently performing daily tasks easier for people with disabilities.
“Even the most simple, basic task isn’t simple for a disabled person,” Herchenroether said. “Any advancement that can be made is an amazing project to be working on.”
Herchenroether noted that she is aware of more negative discourse regarding AI and its energy usage, but said this project seems like a positive use of AI.
“Even though AI interfaces are very costly for the environment, I feel like this is one of the first projects I’ve seen that’s trying to do better,” Herchenroether said. “I really appreciate that, and it helps me look at AI with a new perspective.”
Though Cooper hopes this project can lead to critical advancements in assistive technology and robotics, he said he knows one grant won’t change the world.
“We’re going to do our piece, and it’s a really important first step,” Cooper said. “But, there’s still many problems yet to be addressed for older adults and people with disabilities.”
Cooper noted that projects like RAAMP allow collaboration across universities and industries, accelerating the growth of the assistive technology field.
“I think for us, and, frankly, the American people, this is a real opportunity to take a leadership role and to transform the field of assistive technology,” Cooper said.
Candiotti said another overarching goal of the project is to create an educational platform to facilitate collaboration between industry and academia and expose students to the field of assistive technology.
“I think it’s good exposure to create these types of technology earlier on, so you incentivize the future engineers, clinicians and others of diverse backgrounds to work in this field,” Candiotti said. “I think this is very promising, and it’s very close to our hearts.”
Herchenroether said she is hopeful that research projects like these will help change people’s attitudes towards those with disabilities.
“It’s the attitude and the desire to help disabled people that these researchers working on this new project have that are important,” Herchenroether said. “Hopefully, their attitudes can inspire others. It’s not that they’re trying to cure us, they’re trying to help us.”